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Lithic Technological Variability of the Middle Pleistocene in the Eastern Nihewan Basin) Northern China

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Lithic Technological Variability of the Middle Pleistocene in the Eastern Nihewan Basin) Northern China Lithic Technological Variability of the Middle Pleistocene in the Eastern Nihewan Basin) Northern China CHEN SHEN AND WEI QI UNTIL RECENTLY, STUDIES OF PALEOLITHIC TECHNOLOGY IN CHINA have been limited to generalizations about the nature of lithic industries in comparison to European or other Old World localities. From the "chopper-chopping tool tradition" (Movius 1944, 1948, 1969) to the "simple core-flake technology" (Schick 1994, 1998; Schick and Dong 1993), these broad characterizations em­ phasize the non-Acheulean features of the Early to Middle Pleistocene lithic industries in East Asia. This emphasis on technological differences between the East and the West has hampered the study of lithic technological variability from a regional perspective, even though it may reflect early hominid adaptations unique to East Asia. Based on accumulated data in the last two decades, Chinese researchers have recognized two major lithic industries: the pebble/core tool industry in the central-south and the southeast, and the flake tool industry in the north as well as the southwest (Lu 1999; Olsen and Miller-Antonio 1992; Wang 1997, 2001; Zhang 1999). The two industries, each represented by their unique use of raw materials, core reduction modes, and tool utilization, persisted over the entire Pleistocene with slight changes in spatial distribution (Wang 1997). These tech­ nological differences within mainland China have been attributed to regional adaptations to paleoenvironments. Thus analyses of lithic artifacts from Lower Paleolithic sites have been given some attention in a nUlTlber of recent studies, furnishing technological and statistical data for regional comparison (Chen et al. 1999, 2002; Gao 2000a, b, 2001; Hou 1992, 2000; Huang et al. 1997; Keates 2000; Leng 2001; Shen and Chen 2000,2001,2003). These studies have enabled us to characterize the complexity of lithic technological variability of the Lower Paleolithic in China. In this paper, we will concentrate on two lithic assemHages from Middle Pleistocene sites in the eastern Nihewan Basin: Cenjiawan and Maliang. The study of the Cenjiawan lithic assemblage has been published else- Chen Shen is with the Department of World Cultures of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. Wei Qi is with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. Asiml PerspcctiIJcs, Vol. 43, No.2 (G) 2004 by the University ofHawai'i Press. ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 43 (2) . FALL 2004 Cenjiawan Maliang Donggutuo with field datum Xiaochangliang The Study Region Fig. 1. Maps showing the location of sites in the study. where (Xie and Chen 1990; Xie and Li 1995; Xie et al. 1994). However, the re­ port is in Chinese and inaccessible to most Western readers. Therefore, we will first give a summary of the Cenjiawan materials, following a brief introduction of the study region. The results of the technological and functional analyses of lithic artifacts from the Maliang site are presented. Technological variability of the Lower Paleolithic will be discussed at the end of the paper with comparative data drawn from other Paleolithic sites in northern China. THE NIHEW AN BASIN The Nihewan Basin is located in northwestern Hebei Province, approximately 150 km west of Beijing (Fig. 1). Geological investigations suggest that the Nihe­ wan Basin, at an altitude of 800-1000 m above sea level, was formed from hun­ dreds of meters of fluvial lacustrine sediments accumulated over millions of years. This archaic lake dried up about 25,000 years ago (Wei 1997; Xia 1992). Ancient lake shorelines were identified suggesting three major and seven smaller cycles of expansion and reduction of the lake level (Wei 1991, 1997; Xia 1992). Thus most, if not all, of the Early and Middle Pleistocene sites were lake-side occupa­ tions. The discovery of Pliocene-Pleistocene mammal fossils in the early 1920s (Barbour 1924; Barbour et al. 1927) established the potential of this area as a possible early honlinid locality. Since the 1960s, over 40 archaeological sites or CHEN AND WEI • LITHIC TECHNOLOGICAL VARIABILITY localities have been identified from the Basin (Wei 1997). Lower and Middle Pleistocene sites are concentrated in the eastern end of the Basin, while upper Pleistocene sites are spread widely across the Basin (Fig. 1). Based on the geological formation and biostratigraphic evidence, Wei (1991, 1997) established a chronological framework of the archaeological sites in the Ba­ sin (also see Pope and Keates 1994; Schick et al. 1991). Paleomagnetic dating has been the only suitable dating method able to verify age limits of these sites in corresponding sedimentary layers. The earliest site dates to over one million years ago. Within Nihewan lithostratigraphy, a layer of thick brown sand (or TBS) is recognized as a reference sediment linking deposits among archaeological sites in areas of active faulting. The Cenjiawan site is located about one meter below the TBS layer and dates to approximately 900-970 kya BP (Wei 1991, 1997; Xie and Li 1993), while the Maliang site is above the TBS and has an estimated age of no older than 730 kya BP (Wei 1991,1997). Since the late 1980s, archaeological investigations in the Nihewan Basin have been undertaken by a number of joint international teams. These collaborations have brought new field methods and analytic techniques unprecedented to the study of the Nihewan archaeological materials. Although the two sites being studied here were excavated prior to these collaborations, the lithic artifacts were re-examined as part of these collaborative efforts. THE CENJIAWAN SITE The Cenjiawan site, first identified in 1984, is situated on a hillside, about 837 m from the Donggutuo field datum (40°13'22.5" N-114°40'16.5" E) with a bear­ ing of 8°SW, at an elevation of 869.60 m above sea level (Fig. 1). Archae­ ologists from the Hebei Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics undertook a small-scale excavation at Chenjiawan in 1986, yielding 897 lithic artifacts (Xie and Chen 1990). Faunal remains were collected, but no counts were reported (Xie and Chen 1990). Schick et al. (1991) mentioned that there were faunal remains numbering about 100. The excavators recognized that the artifacts were found in clusters at the site, suggesting this may be indicative of activity areas. Unfortunately, precise provenances of the artifacts (3D coordinates) were not available from this field season. The second fieldwork season took place in 1992 when the excavation was better controlled and artifacts were piece-plotted (Xie and Li 1993). The excava­ tion trench, about 10m N -S by 2 m E-W, was laid out at the west end of the previous excavated area. The second field season yielded a total of 486 lithic arti­ facts and 206 bone fragments. In addition, lithic debris and bone fragments were discovered through dry screening. The faunal remains consisted of mainly frag­ ments of elephants and Proboscidipparion-Equus. Ninety percent of the recovered bones were heavily eroded and weathered (Xie and Li 1993: 231). Most of the artifacts were recovered from four one-by-one-meter squares (N, 0, P, Q), forming a small concentration of artifacts within the entire 20 m 2 excavation area. The Lithic Assemblage A combined total of 1383 lithic artifacts were recovered fronL two field seasons. Table 1 shows the classification of lithic artifacts according to the two original 2 84 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES 43(2) FALL 2004 TABLE 1. LITHIC ASSEMBLAGE OF CENJIAWAN 1986 EXCAVATION 1992 EXCAVATION COMBINED CLASS N % N % N % Cores 23 2.6 13 2.7 36 2.6 Formed Types 26 2.9 7 1.4 33 2.4 side-scrapers 25 4 29 end-scrapers 1 1 2 notches 0 2 2 Debitage 848 94.5 283 58.2 1131 81.8 complete flakes 97 81 178 flake fragments 751 202 953 Debris (chucks) 183 37.7 183 13.2 Total 897 100.0 486 100.0 1383 100.0 reports (Xie and Chen 1990; Xie and Li 1993). In our study, the four main classes of artifacts include cores, formed types, debitage, and debris. The formed types are those with intentional modifications made by employing either surface or edge retouch so as to form certain shapes that traditional lithic typologists would categorize as tools, such as scrapers, burins, choppers, etc. Debitage includes flakes that were likely removed with the intention of producing tool blanks, or at least they were flakes with potential to be used directly (or unmodified) as tools. This property of debitage flakes being used as tools is also the reason we renamed the traditional category "tool" for shaped objects to "formed types." In contrast, de­ bris consists of unexpected waste products of core reduction. They are small chips and angular chunks formed as blow-off by-products of the flint knapping process. Debris has no potential to be modified and used as tools whatsoever, but its pres­ ence in archaeological sites is numerous and the spatial distribution is a good in­ dication of manufacturing activities on site. Clearly, in the first season, the excavators did not give much attention to debris, as only large complete flakes along with cores and formed types were recorded. Even in the second field season when dry-screening was applied, according to the reports, the excavators classified only cores, tools, complete flakes, flake fragments, and chunks. Therefore, if the site indeed represented a manufacturing area as indicated by the data below, then artifacts in the debris class should be more numerous than is noted here. According to the reports, 36 cores consist of 25 single-platform cores and 11 with double platforms. Among these, four cores are bipolar. The range of core size is about 17-114 mm in length, 19-113 mm in width, and 8-37 mm in thickness, but most of the cores are small.
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